Thursday, January 18, 2018

I read somewhere a little while back that ferrets
were making a comeback as Pets. Which got me to reminiscing of when my parents
had ferrets. My family, and many of our
relatives, had Ferrets many, many, many years ago. Not as pets but as working
animals. Back in the 19050s and early 60’s before Myxomatosis come on the scene
and greatly reduced the rabbit population very quickly, the main way rabbits
were contained in our area was by hunting with dogs and Ferrets. Many a Sunday
afternoon of my early childhood was spent out with the dogs and ferrets with both
family and friends after rabbits. One dog we had, Bluey was very good at
telling us if there was a rabbit down a burrow. When we came across a burrow we
would get Bluey to sniff it out. If he sniffed and walked away, we would do the
same. But if he started to bark and furiously dig away at the burrow we would
pull him away and put the ferret to work. Sometimes the dogs would put up a
rabbit away from its burrow and if they missed it on the run and it went down a
burrow, we would then put nets around all the holes we could find in the immediate
area and send the Ferret or ferrets down.
Usually only one Ferret but occasionally you would send a second one
down either to help the first or occasionally to enough the first one to come
out again.

As
hinted above Ferrets were very popular then and many had them or wanted them so
my family would not only have ferrets for their own use but would also breed
and sell them too. As at least 3 Uncles
also had ferrets, there was a bit of swapping of Breeding Bucks and Does among
the families to ensure strong blood lines.

Every year we would always have a half a dozen
or so young ferrets for sale. In the early days Dad had the flat top of a five
gallon oil drum with the wording “Ferrets for sale” on it and when he had
ferrets for sale would nail it to a phone pole at the end of the drive up on
the main Eltham -Yarra glen road to attract
interested prospective buyers. In later years he hardly needed to put the sign
up as he had regular people either coming back themselves or recommending him
to their friends.

It was before my memory but when my older
brothers were around 3 or 4, dad had quite a few young ferrets and my brothers,
babies that they were, used to help my mother to feed them and thus handled
them a lot. Well the story goes that one
day someone stopped by to check out the ferrets and when the box was opened,
all the baby ferrets swarmed out all over my brothers who were grabbing them by
the armfuls without being bitten or scratched, much to the amazement of this
Customer. He was amazed at their gentleness and ease of handling, as many
ferrets can be nasty even to their handlers. He was so amazed that not only did he buy a
couple there and then but through his word of mouth, all that year’s babies were
sold to him and his friends.

As said above when myxo came in it greatly
reduced the need of Ferrets. And in fact even before then, when my brothers went
into shotguns and spotlighting, and so the Ferrets went out of favour almost
everywhere in the mid to late 60’s including at our place.

Well that is enough reminiscing from me for
now. Do you have any reminisces of Ferrets in your youth to share?

Monday, January 15, 2018

I usually buy the wider family and casual friends’,
boxes or tins of cheap Shortbread biscuits for Christmas. While doing that last
year I saw some more expensive genuine Scottish Short bread biscuits in the
shape of Scottish Terriers and knowing that a nephew of ours and his partner
had a Scottish Terrier, I splashed out and bought them a box of these dog
shaped biscuits. Which they though was cool.

Well someone gave me exactly the same dog-shaped
biscuits, and so last week when our Grandchildren wanted something to eat but
were being precious about what they wanted to eat, I opened the packet of Biscuits
and let them try one each. Which they did and liked very much. So much so that
when their mother arrived they proudly told her that they had been eating dog
biscuits and that they were yummy. Well, our poor daughter! The look on her
face was priceless. The horrified look only relaxing when we told her that they
were in fact dog-shaped Shortbread biscuits which were indeed very yummy. Just
shows what happens when what you think you heard, is not what the person was
saying or meaning, and the importance,
for us older folk at least, to be clear ourselves when speaking to everyone;
both young and old, and always saying what we mean and meaning what we say. And
also the importance and value of asking clarifying questions if we have any doubts
at all over what we heard or thought we heard.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

Our Daughter and her 3 children were holidaying
with the other Grandparents last week down at their Holiday/Retirement home
near the Beach. The House has two stories and lots of steps and Mr. 22 & ½ months
loved to run up and down the stairs - much to his mother’s great concern; and
she obviously told him many times, “its’s Dangerous. I say obviously, because on Monday morning
while at our place he came out with the phrase, “It’s dangerous”. Which did surprise me a little bit but not
half as much as I was surprised when I realized that he was using it in context
with another situation which was also potentially dangerous. At the end of our block
of units is an old concrete path that is wobbly and crumbling and he was on a
small piece of it that was wobbly and only held to the rest of the block of
concrete by the reinforcing wire. So there he is rocking on this small unstable
piece of concrete proudly and loudly telling me “It’s dangerous”. It didn’t
stop him from doing what he was doing but at least he realized it was potentially
dangerous.

After I got over the shock of him at that tender
age actually knowing and acknowledging the fact that what he was doing was
dangerous, I was also intrigued that it didn’t actually stop him doing it
still. Which kind of reminds me of a lot of adults too, who readily admit what
they are doing is dangerous but also have no intention of stopping despite the
potential and obvious dangers they see. But what about you now? Yes as we now
start to get serious about the New Year ahead of us, what is it that you are
doing that you realize and acknowledge “Is dangerous” and that you are now
going to stop and change? Over to you now for your reflection- and action.

Monday, September 25, 2017

Went
across the Railway track this morning (with the dog) and went through one of
the Bush reserves on that side of the tracks. While following a self guided walk
(according to the posted sighs) I came across a Garden bench (Much like my
cheap ones) with a sight saying “This Birdwatcher’s Bench kindly donated by
Therese Starling.”And the only thing I could think of was, I hope there are
better birds there to see than Starlings! Dirty, messy little ‘mice with
wings’.

Whilst our
lastborn and family have been away on holidays I have been going over to walk
the dog along the Dandenong Creek trail near their home. As I have already
covered a lot of the nearbyarea from
previous walks I decided this time to both extend the area I covered and also
to cover some of the nearby bush reserves too.

While
walking through Dexter’s Reserve along its footworn narrow tracks, the thought
came to me that my father would have loved it there, even though he was never a
city person! That said once (when he was thinking of retiring from the Green
Grocery Round,) he did briefly contemplate
doing an Uncle Ted. That is selling the farm (In Uncle Ted’s case, it was an
Orchard,) and buying a house In Panton Hill, close to the shops etc. I think
Mum would have liked that with a newer house and more modern facilities, but I
think one of my cousins talked him out of that reminding him of the open land
still around him compared to suburban closeness.

Whatever the
reason, it never happened and they remained there and Dad, for as long as he
could, lived out his retirement there and often taking long walks with the dog,
children or Grandchildren up along the creek and along bush tracks and enjoying
the bush and sights there. The memory of those walks came back to me as I was
walking along the bush tracks through the small but seemingly large Dexter
reserve. And the thought came to me that I loved it there too. Although very
close to the heart of Melbourne, there, along the Dandenong Creek it seemed like
one really was out in the bush in the middle of nowhere!

Friday, October 14, 2016

Many years ago I started to write some of my
memories from my youth down (and they are still around somewhere on Floppy
Discs,) but I was discouraged when someone challenged my memories and so I stopped.
Recently however, I have been encouraged by my son to jot some more down on
paper. Well at least, on the computer. So I am currently doing so now, but in
no particular order or chronology, but simply when currently inspired to jot
them down. This brings me to the point of this particular Blog. Whose Memory is
correct?

Often, as I found to my discouragement, others
memories disagree with ours. Yes, this can be so, but does that make any of
them/us fully right or fully wrong? Remember these memories are of how one
particular person experienced a certain event, and often people can experience
the same event from a different angle or perspective to you and have a
completely different memory to yours.

When
I was not even a month past 11 years of age, the 1962 Bushfires passed around
our house and so has become an indelible time line in my life, with just a few
memories before it and a host after it. Getting married; Becoming a believer In
Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour; Going to Africa; and coming back from
Africa, have also become major defining times in my life.

Going back to the 62 Fires, are my memories of
it correct? Depends it seems on who you talk to. For instance I was talking to
my two brothers earlier this year about the 62 Bushfires. My oldest brother was there at the time, as
was I, but our other brother was on Holiday with a mate and his family at
Philip Island.During our discussion
earlier this year I mentioned one aspect about the Fire and a certain Gentleman
who was there and who took charge of things where I was. My oldest brother
started to disagree strongly saying that the person whom I mentioned wasn’t
even there then. At which point our other brother (who wasn’t there at the time
of the Fire) backed my story, saying that dad had often mentioned that the man
I had mentioned, had indeed been there, and taken charge of things because initially,
dad was not back from fighting the fire elsewhere.. At which point my older
brother remembered that he and I, had in fact been on different sides of the
Creek and with a different group of people, hence our experiences and memories
differed greatly. Not because either of us were wrong but because both of us
saw and experienced it from a different side of the Creek and from a different
angle and perspective.

So, if someone’s memories differ from yours,
it is possible that they or you are wrong but more likely that they have seen
and experienced it from different angles. So please check your facts before commenting
and if they, or even I, have gotten the facts wrong, please forgive and please
gently correct where needed. However, do remember that even though many people
may experience the same event, that doesn’t mean that they experienced it in
the same way or angle as you, and thus may well remember it differently to you.
Again this does not make either of you right or wrong.It just means that you may have experienced
it from different angles.

Monday, August 1, 2016

I feel/ suspect that you, like me
till today, have no idea what a virgule is. Nor how to properly pronounce it (\VUR-gyool\) But while you may not know/understand what a virgule
is, I believe/know that you see and use them regularly.In fact in just reading this far, you have
seen/read six of them so far and will see another five before you finish. If you finish!

So what is a virgule? According
to Word of the day for July 28/2016, a virgule is 1. a short oblique stroke (/) between two words indicating that
whichever is appropriate may be chosen to complete the sense of the text in
which they occur: The defendant and his/her attorney must appear in court.
2. a dividing line, as in dates, fractions, a run-in passage of poetry to show
verse division, etc.: 3/21/27;

So a virgule is a thing most of us use
regularly without knowing its name and are happy enough about that so far, not
to even want to know its name. Which is fine for things I guess but not fine
when we treat people like that, is it?

I wonder how many of us treat
people like we treat the virgule. We see
them, even use them or their services, but barely recognise them, let alone know
their names. Maybe you are even being treated like a virgule yourself. What say
you from your perspective and what can you do about it. Wood love to hear from you on this subject. TOWPG.

About Me

Mid to late 60's, married for 45 years with 3 adult children. Spent 12 years working with an African Church, in the Xhosa homeland of Transkei, both before and after re-incorporation back into South Africa. Have been back in Oz since late 02. Since Aug 07 to Feb 2012 as Pastor of a small Independent Baptist Church.
From July 1st 2012 to May 13 briefly the "Director for Communication and Prayer Ministry" with the Slavic Gospel Association in Australia. Since then till late 2015 unemployed; and now officially retired
This Blog site is of a more general philosophical nature, than the others. For Blogs of a more christian philosophical nature, see my "Christian Ponderings" site.
The "Pacific Ponderings" Blog was designed for more personal Blogs and specifically, our South Pacific Cruise.